notamechanic44

I know this thread is dead, but wanted to give my experience with the viscous coupler on my 2015 ford fusion 2.0 AWD with 140,000 miles. I scoured the internet on this topic and came up short except for this thread. Hopefully this post will help someone in the future. One day I was turning out of the grocery store and I thought someone had hit me. I pulled over to check the car and everything seemed fine. I continued on my journey home, but every time I turned at low speed the back end would shudder or the rear tires would chirp. I unplugged the sensor and everything seemed to work fine, minus the AWD warning light. I came across this thread and saw the bulletin from Ford on the viscous coupler. The only thing was when I looked part number CV6Z-4A232-A in google the ford fusion was not in the list of vehicles. I decide to continue on with the teardown, because from what I saw on the internet looked a lot like the rear end on my car. The process took me about 5 days to take the part out due to not having much guidance and working on the car at night after work. Here are the steps I took to remove the viscous coupler in my car. 1. There are 6 torx 45 bolts that you need to remove from the rear driveshaft. I considered these bolts to be a one time use, because half of them were on the verge of stripping. 2.There are 4 torx 40 bolts on the viscous coupler housing you will need to remove 3. You will need to remove the two 13mm bolts that hold the center drive shaft bearing. This will allow you to move the drive shaft away from the viscous coupler housing. 4. There will be plate that holds the grease for the rear driveshaft connection in the coupler housing. This part will need to be removed with some plyers to be able to access the last bolt holding the housing on. 5. The bolt behind the plate is also a 13mm. Once the bolt is removed, then you will have to break the housing free, because the coupler housing is attached to the differential with grey gasket maker. Once you remove the housing, you will have access to the viscous coupler. 6. Remove the viscous coupler from the vehicle. I had to use a little bit of force for this step. 7. There are 4 torx 50 bolts that will need to be removed to separate the front of the viscous coupler and the spindle on the front of the viscous coupler. 8. You should now have access to the sensor of the viscous coupler. There is a metal ring in the center that you will need to remove, so you can remove the sensor. 9.Once the sensor is removed, there are 3 torx 25 bolts you need to remove. Once these bolts are remove the final piece should slide out. 10. Take a deep breath, because the viscous coupler is now out of your vehicle. 11. Order the part and install everything in the reverse order. When I removed the coupler I notice some of the splines had worn down just enough to cause some slippage. I paid $462.00 for the viscous coupler part number CV6Z-4A232-A and 6 driveshaft bolts $1.62 a piece part number 5F9Z-4682-AA. The drive shaft bolts come in pairs of two, so I really only bought 3 pairs. I hope this post provides some guidance to a DIY like myself.